The first sunrise of 2017. The view from Lake Mathews in Riverside, California.
A seemingly fat and happy hawk overlooking “A” Street / Citrus Heights Drive in Riverside, California.
A millipede crossing “A” Street / Citrus Heights Drive in Riverside, California.
Hope everyone has a great 2017.
I have lived in Riverside for thirteen years, and have never visited Fairmount Park in Riverside, California.
This past weekend after I dropped my oldest son off to take the SAT, I decided to take a walk around the park. Here are a few pictures:
For a minute, I thought this Greylag Goose was going to charge me. He decided to pose instead.
A bunch of coots.
These Muscovy ducks seemed to be talking to each other.
I didn’t walk near the tank on this visit, but I was very curious about its background. I found a page on the City’s website that provides a little bit of the history. Here is a summary:
The tank is a light amphibious tracked vehicle called the LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tracked). The LVTs were produced here in Riverside during World War II by the FMC Corporation. The same company also retrofitted these vehicles for use in the Korean War. The LVT was also known as the Water Buffalo.
“In 1949 a monument, complete with LVT, was dedicated to the factory war workers at Fairmount Park near the location where they had conducted testing.”
Canadian geese.
I was treated to a mini air show today over Lake Mathews.
It seemed to be an air-to-air photography session. The planes were too high to get good pictures from the ground, but I still tried…
If you know anything about any of these planes, please let me know. I’ll try to research the ones that have identification.
How do you get this photography job? Awesome.
RPD showed up too.
Taking the kids to school when the moon is still shining just doesn’t seem right.
Good morning Riverside.
Driving by Lake Mathews today, my wife yelled, “There they are!”
She was referring to the bald eagles we have heard about that nest at Lake Mathews during the winter. Here is the iPhone picture I snapped when we pulled over:
We immediately turned around and headed home to grab our cameras. When we returned, we were fortunate that this beautiful bald eagle was still hanging around enjoying a meal:
Just as I was walking along the roadway to try a different vantage point, the eagle flew away…
Fortunately, the eagle landed on the Cajalco side of the dam. Although we couldn’t get close enough to get great pictures, we still managed to get a few that were decent enough to post:
Seeing our national emblem out in the wild was such a great experience.
“The Congress finds as follows: (1) The bald eagle was designated as the national emblem of the United States on June 20, 1782, by our country’s Founding Fathers at the Second Continental Congress. – From the American Bald Eagle Recovery and National Emblem Commemorative Coin Act
A few facts from The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
Distinguished by a white head and white tail feathers, bald eagles are powerful, brown birds that may weigh 14 pounds and have a wingspan of 8 feet. Male eagles are smaller, weighing as much as 10 pounds and have a wingspan of 6 feet. […]
Eagles mate for life, choosing the tops of large trees to build nests, which they typically use and enlarge each year. Nests may reach 10 feet across and weigh a half ton. They may also have one or more alternate nests within their breeding territory. […]
Bald Eagles may live 15 to 25 years in the wild, longer in captivity.
After watching this beautiful creature for a few moments, it flew away.
A helicopter at the park… not something I’m used to seeing every day.
Thankfully, this wasn’t a medical emergency.
The crew of this helicopter along with Riverside County’s Fire and Sheriff Departments participated in a safety fair held at the Victoria Grove Community Park yesterday in Riverside.
Here are a few pictures:
With our current drought conditions, I thought I would post some pictures of a time when we had a lot of rain. I took these shots from the 91 (on an old cell phone) of the flooding in January 2005 that flooded and eroded part of the Green River golf course.
Here are a few more pictures of the river basin next to the golf course before part of the golf course eroded and the basin was rebuilt.
A few pictures of the local snow early this morning…
Views from Lake Mathews Dam…
A sight you don’t normally see on the 91 in Riverside…
The Moreno Valley “M” on Box Springs Mountain…
Happy New Year!
Nice day.
Click on the image for a larger version.
We drove out to Los Angeles yesterday to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour. We caught up to the shuttle at Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Menlo Ave. / Bill Robertson Ln. Thousands of other people were there too…
What an amazing sight.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour will be on display at the California Science Center beginning 10/30/12.